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null Brain’s biological clock stimulates thirst before sleep

Discovery could lead to ways to mitigate effects of jet lag and shift work

Sep 28, 2016

The brain’s biological clock stimulates thirst in the hours before sleep, according to a study published in the journal Nature by researchers from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC).

The finding – along with the discovery of the molecular process behind it – provides the first insight into how the clock regulates a physiological function. And while the research was conducted in mice, “the findings could point the way toward drugs that target receptors implicated in problems that people experience from shift work or jet lag,” says the study’s senior author, Charles Bourque, a professor in McGill’s Department of Neurology and scientist at the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program at the (RI-MUHC). Read more